Share your sweets: Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and bonobo (Pan paniscus) willingness to share highly attractive, monopolizable food sources

TY - JOUR

T1 - Share your sweets

T2 - Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and bonobo (Pan paniscus) willingness to share highly attractive, monopolizable food sources

AU - Byrnit, Jill T.

AU - Høgh-Olesen, Henrik

AU - Makransky, Guido

PY - 2015/1/1

Y1 - 2015/1/1

N2 - All over the world, humans (Homo sapiens) display resource-sharing behavior, and common patterns of sharing seem to exist across cultures. Humans are not the only primates to share, and observations from the wild have long documented food sharing behavior in our closest phylogenetic relatives, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus). However, few controlled studies have been made in which groups of Pan are introduced to food items that may be shared or monopolized by a first food possessor, and very few studies have examined what happens to these sharing patterns if the food in question is a highly attractive, monopolizable food source. The one study to date to include food quality as the independent variable used different types of food as high- and low-value items, making differences in food divisibility and size potentially confounding factors. It was the aim of the present study to examine the sharing behavior of groups of captive chimpanzees and bonobos when introducing the same type of food (branches) manipulated to be of 2 different degrees of desirability (with or without syrup). Results showed that the large majority of food transfers in both species came about as sharing in which group members were allowed to cofeed or remove food from the stock of the food possessor, and the introduction of high-value food resulted in more sharing, not less. Food sharing behavior differed between species in that chimpanzees displayed significantly more begging behavior than bonobos. Bonobos, instead, engaged in sexual invitations, which the chimpanzees never did.

AB - All over the world, humans (Homo sapiens) display resource-sharing behavior, and common patterns of sharing seem to exist across cultures. Humans are not the only primates to share, and observations from the wild have long documented food sharing behavior in our closest phylogenetic relatives, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus). However, few controlled studies have been made in which groups of Pan are introduced to food items that may be shared or monopolized by a first food possessor, and very few studies have examined what happens to these sharing patterns if the food in question is a highly attractive, monopolizable food source. The one study to date to include food quality as the independent variable used different types of food as high- and low-value items, making differences in food divisibility and size potentially confounding factors. It was the aim of the present study to examine the sharing behavior of groups of captive chimpanzees and bonobos when introducing the same type of food (branches) manipulated to be of 2 different degrees of desirability (with or without syrup). Results showed that the large majority of food transfers in both species came about as sharing in which group members were allowed to cofeed or remove food from the stock of the food possessor, and the introduction of high-value food resulted in more sharing, not less. Food sharing behavior differed between species in that chimpanzees displayed significantly more begging behavior than bonobos. Bonobos, instead, engaged in sexual invitations, which the chimpanzees never did.

KW - Accepted taking

KW - Bonobo food sharing

KW - Chimpanzee food sharing

KW - Food possession

KW - High- and low-value food

U2 - 10.1037/a0039351

DO - 10.1037/a0039351

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 26075515

AN - SCOPUS:84938746311

SN - 0735-7036

VL - 129

SP - 218

EP - 228

JO - Journal of Comparative Psychology

JF - Journal of Comparative Psychology

IS - 3

ER -